10 Idiotic Decisions By TV Characters Who Should Have Known Better

Oliver Queen, for all of his heroics, seems to be a montage of terrible choices, including lying to Felicity about the existence of his son and allowing Andy Diggle to join Team Arrow's attack on Iron Heights.

None of these were quite as stupid as Oliver's decision to duel the leader of the League of Assassins in a one-on-one sword battle.

There was supposed to be a valid motivation behind Oliver's idiocy. Malcolm Merlyn, hoping to end the blood debt between himself and Ra's, brainwashed Thea Queen into killing Sara Lance. Knowing that Ra's would demand the execution of Sara's killer, Merlyn forces Oliver to confess to Sara's murder by threatening to expose Thea, hoping that the subsequent trial by combat would end in Oliver killing Ra's and absolving the blood debt.

Oliver goes through with it, and it leads to a sequence of unfortunate circumstances, including the near deaths of Oliver and Thea, and Oliver being forced to join the League of Assassins.

All of this could have been avoided if Oliver had made an obvious decision. One that Thea actually ends up making later in the season: send Malcolm Merlyn instead.

Obviously, there was absolutely zero chance of Merlyn setting his daughter Thea up to be killed. It was one the world's most obvious bluffs. The fact that the choice was so clear to Thea really emphasizes that Oliver should have known better.